Hardware Review: IEI 140W DC/DC Power Supply IDDV-6304140A

Hardware Review: IEI 140W DC/DC Power Supply IDDV-6304140A

The IDDV-6304140A is a 140-watt DC/DC Power Supply with intelligent power handling.

The Verdict:

The IDDV-6304140A is a solid competitor in a suddenly flourishing car PC power supply market. It attempts to add small and useful features to a tried and true form factor, and succeeds in powering a pretty power hungry setup effectively and efficiently.

The IDDV-6304140A comes neatly and securely packaged with the PSU, instruction manual, and cables for motherboard ON/OFF switch, external optional power switch, optional led and amplifier turn on delay.

Description:

The IDDV-6304140A is a fully RoHS compliant DC/DC ATX converter module capable of powering computer systems with up to a 140-watt demand. Right out of the box, the IDDV appears identical to other PSUs already on the market with its similar form factor to the M2 and GP83 devices. It does however come with some original and interesting features, most notably the ability to control the PSU with an infrared remote control. Simply connect GND, VCC, and IRRX to the board’s 3-pin connector and you can turn your car PC on/off with the push of a button. This feature overrides ignition on/off status, but it does not ignore the built in thermal and voltage sensing kill switches programmed into the unit. The IDDV promises to shut down any power when then temp range exceeds -20°C – 85°C or when battery voltage sensed is <10.7v

M2-ATX on the left, IDDV device on the right

Small improvements have been made to the layout of the IDDV when compared to the M2-ATX which has similar power and customizable options. The IDDV smartly moves the smaller connectors away from the ATX connector and spreads them over the board. This greatly adds to the ease of installation, especially in small ITX cases. There are also more mounting options on the IDDV device. Each end of the board has 4 mounting holes, whereas the M2 and other devices of the same form factor only have 1 mounting option.

Other components are nearly the same when compared to the m2; same 15-watt fuse, same blade-style connectors for 12v, ACC, and GND. The maximum power output on the IDDV is documented as 20-watts less than the m2, but the output voltage per line is nearly identical as well. The documentation for the IDDV suggests that a few connectors on the board are there for programming the microchip, but at the time of this review I was not able to test this feature. I was able to confirm that the IDDV will indeed kill power to 5v power rail if the user sets the jumpers of the 6-option operation mode correctly. This is a big deal to people that fear having all their usb devices constantly powered may end up killing their battery

So how does the IDDV perform? My testing hardware consisted of the Intel DG45FC motherboard mated to a 3.06 GHz core 2 duo chip, 2GB of Ram, a 500GB 2.5” hard drive, a 7” 629 lilliput, morex 5677 ITX case, and a host of usb devices. Windows XP was the OS of choice. I ran a series of 3 tests. The first test which consisted solely of connecting the IDDV and running the computer at idle for 12 hours passed with flying colors as expected. The second test was run by playing DVD video through Centrafuse 3 via an externally powered DVD-ROM for 12 hours. To make it interesting I also opened up iGuidance and plotted a trip. Again, then IDDV showed no problems with the task. The final test was the only one to give the IDDV problems. I ran a DVD burner utility while running GPS through Centrafuse. The test was set to run a total of 6 hours, but somewhere around 4 hours 15 minutes the IDDV quit on me resulting in the computer to crash and reboot. I would still give the IDDV a passing grade, because in a car PC there will seldom be a time where you’re pushing the power of your PSU for that amount of time.

The IDDV-6304140A is a solid competitor in a suddenly flourishing car PC power supply market. It attempts to add small and useful features to a tried and true form factor, and succeeds in powering a pretty power hungry setup effectively and efficiently.